About

Who we are

Team

Morgana Daniele is a drug policy and human rights activist. Her expertise is in community mobilization, harm reduction education, and advocacy for drug policy reform. Her academic background is Eastern European and Russian politics.

Eva Césarová is a young activist focusing on drug policy, harm reduction and psychedelics. Eva works in the National Institute of Mental Health as part of the psychedelic research team, as well as being one of the co-founders of the Czech Psychedelic Society. She is currently studying Addictology at the Faculty of Medicine in Prague.

Brun Gonzalez is a young activist who has been involved in harm reduction since 2009. He is currently the regional representative of the Latin American Network of People who Use Drugs (LANPUD) for the board of the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD).

Pashang Waiba is an activist whose work in Nepal for the past five years has been in the fields of drug treatment, harm reduction, and HIV & AIDS. Pashang has focused specifically on youth and female using/injecting drug users, and she advocates for reform to more youth-friendly, right-based drug policy.

Florian is a Deputy Director of Help Not Harm and a co-founder of SSDP Ireland. He has represented Youth RISE to numerous Irish government departments and the Irish Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He is currently undertaking a PhD in ‘NPS Injecting in Ireland: practices, health implications and service utilization’.

Ishwor is a young activist promoting harm reduction initiatives which value health and human rights of drug users in Nepal, specifically promoting gender equality and young people. He is one of the national representatives of Youth LEAD. He is currently studying for a Master’s Degree in Tribhuvan University.

Catherine is an enthusiastic young African feminist working with Dandelion Kenya and Women Global Network for Reproductive Rights Alliance Kenya as well as sitting on African CSOs Coalition on Population and Development (ACCPD), and on the SDGs Forum Kenya steering committee. She is also a blogger with Girls Globe, and writes a column at Rural Reporters.

Wiqas is a youth activist from Pakistan who founded Human Resources Organization and Initiative for Youth & Sustainable Development and is the current Executive Director for the Initiative for Youth and Sustainable Development in Pakistan. He is also involved in cross border education and health initiatives with young people in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Ailish is a feminist youth activist working on drug policy, homelessness, as well as LGBTQ+, and feminist issues, especially focusing on the intersection of all of these topics. She is studying for a Bachelor of Arts in University College Dublin, where she founded the first chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

Daniel is a social activist with a drug policy, capacity building, advocacy and governance background. He is the Youth RISE representative to Paradigma and was the co-founder of Activista Ghana. His academic background is Political Science and English.

News

2018 European Harm Reduction Network Conference

Youth RISE presented their Guidelines for Police for working with Young People who use drugs as part of at the recent 2018 European Harm Reduction Network Conference in Bucharest, Romania. This was done as part of a session called “Drug Policy Trends: Alternative to Coercive Sanctions” organised by the fantastic Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA). Speakers included inspirational legends working in Hungary, Russia, Estonia and throughout the Baltic region. International co-ordinator Morgana Daniele also presented her own personal research on service provisions for people who use drugs, specifically for people who use heroin in Lithuania. The presentation provided insight into the capabilities of Opioid Substitution Treatment services and the people providing them, and was well received in a session titled “Bringing Treatment to the Community” with HA-REACT.

HIV and People Who Use Drugs in Kenya and Ghana

In Kenya and Ghana, YouthRISE representatives have implemented research to explore the interventions currently being made in these two Sub-Saharan Africa nations relation to the intersection of HIV and drug use. They have also been engaged in capacity building to work with relevant people who use drugs in education them on the safe use of drugs by young women, adolescents, and HIV infected persons. HIV remains prevalent especially among marginalized groups within these countries. This project was carried out very successfully and included a number of positive recommendations, which you can read more about here.

Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference

The 4th Law Enforcement and Public Health conference in Toronto started on Monday, 22nd of October. Youth RISE took part in a pre-consultation and held a workshop on guidelines for police that Youth RISE is currently developing. The feedback collected during the session will be used to ensure the correspondence of guidelines to the needs of young people who use drugs and the police. At the main conference Youth RISE held a session and presented issues related to young people who use drugs and their encounters with police from across the world, emphasising the necessity for more good practices and cooperation. Police deputy chief from Belgium, Peter Muyshondt, participated in the panel to represent the police perspective.

SSDP European Regional Conference

The first ever Students for Sensible Drug Policy conference took place in Vienna on the 10th and 11th of November, with two Youth RISE members being in attendance. Our International Co-ordinator Morgana Daniele was invited to speak about harm reduction and her experience working and advising people in medical services working with people who use drugs. The event was attended by a number of young drug policy activists from universities across Europe, most of whom are members of SSDP, as well as attendees from the Paradigma coalition, Students for Liberty, and YODA.

Global Fund Count Me IN Project

Youth RISE have been implementing their Global Fund Project very successfully recently. The aim of the project is to aid the engagement of key youth populations in the Global Fund processes at country level. On the 5th and 6th of October in Kiev, Ukraine Youth RISE successfully implemented the training component of the project. The success of this aspect of the Count Me IN project leaves us well set to continue our work and increasing key young peoples interaction with the Global Fund project in their country in the future.

2017

2016

Youth RISE new brand and strategy is developed in order to reach out more grass-root communities.

2015

Youth RISE gains UNODC consultancy status for developing Youth Friendly Harm Reduction toolkits and actively involved young people who use drugs voices for UNGASS 2016 through advocacy workshops and campaigns. Here you can have a link for UN on Drugs page

2014

Youth RISE launches its new website and online drug policy courses for young people in collaboration with International Drug Policy Consortium

2013

Youth RISE continues its collaboration with different UN and Civil Society members to bring out voices of young people and key affected opulation. Youth RISE deliver extensive peer education trainings, capacity building activities and youth drug policy work in 4 countries, Portugal, Mexico, Nigeria and Kyrgyzstan under EU funding project.